by Gregg, Kari
Shane tipped his head blindly toward Lore’s. His lips parted while Lore still pumped into his wrecked, quivering body.
Their first true kiss was an intoxicating mix of fused lips, the carnal twine of tongues, and the maddening flavor of blood and semen.
How could Shane be Lore’s victor without ever before tasting him?
And now that he had, was there any denying what Shane was?
Reeling with equal measures arousal and confusion, Shane opened wider and invited Lore in. Lore licked into his mouth, the rough texture of his tongue tickling as he explored. Pleasure dazzled Shane as the cat’s tongue scraped his, and what was left of his mind splintered at the drip of the cat’s cum leaking from his ass.
Swamped by sensation, all traces of rational thought gone, Shane pressed close, fighting to accept more of the cat’s essence into his body, and sucked on Lore’s tongue. Breath? Who needed to breathe? No, what Shane really needed was—
The cat ripped one hand free of Shane’s ass cheek, claws retracting. While Shane writhed, Lore jabbed a finger into Shane’s crack. Shane screamed into Lore’s mouth at the hot, bright pain as that rude finger wedged into his hole alongside the cat’s softening dick. When the finger slid free, a sheen of sweat flushed Shane’s skin. Lore released his kiss and lifted his hand to Shane’s mouth. “Open.”
Oily semen glistened.
Too depleted to fight him, Shane parted his tingling lips. Lore shoved the finger in, and Shane jerked weakly at the assault of flavor. The bitter sour of the cat’s semen coated his tongue. “Suck,” Lore demanded. So that was exactly what Shane did. He sealed his lips around that finger, and groaning at the gamy taste, he licked. And licked. Gods, had he ever been so hungry? He sucked, chasing that finger with his tongue. When Lore removed it, Shane followed that finger with his mouth until the cat halted him with a fist clenched in his hair. Again the cat dipped into Shane’s ass. He scooped cum out and then fed it to Shane.
Tired, drunk on his cat’s taste, Shane sucked, taking what the cat offered him of their sex twice more before his lashes lowered. “Please,” he mumbled. “Need it.”
The cat’s chuckle vibrated Shane’s overburdened body. “All for you, Precious.” He pushed Shane down the contours of his body to his crotch. Dopey, Shane wrapped his mouth around the fat head of the cat’s fur-covered dick. Some part of Shane’s mind screamed at him to stop. That cock had been in his ass, for gods’ sakes, but Shane had never craved anything more. Starved, he swallowed the tip of Lore’s cock, lapping at the sticky semen that slicked the short fur.
“Not too deeply,” Lore said around ragged pants. “The spines will tear your sweet mouth.”
The cat secured his grasp in Shane’s hair before bucking his hips, forcing another thin burst of cum past Shane’s lips. He coughed. He choked. He sucked and swallowed. His numb fingers scrabbled at the cat’s hips, silently urging him to fuck his mouth too.
More.
Just a little more.
The cat chuffed and yanked Shane’s mouth free. He forced Shane’s head against his thigh and held Shane there when he tried to return to his prize. Eyes closing, Shane surrendered to the cat and to the demands of his sapped body.
“Rest, my love,” Lore said, stroking Shane’s hair. “Just rest.”
* * * *
Shane hurt in more places than he’d ever realized he could hurt. His shoulder throbbed in time with his heartbeat. When he shifted a hand to assess the damage, the other hand jerked as well—lashed together now. And oh merciful gods, agony streaked up both forearms.
“He can’t stay in the arena,” Lore said on a quiet rumble outside, nearby. “He’s too weak. Injured.”
“I have med techs on standby.”
Shane shuddered at the strange voice. A cat’s voice, but no cat Shane had met yet. Worse, this cat led a team of med techs, which meant he was a warden. Hurting be damned and to hells with pride too; he tunneled under the furs to hide.
“He’ll be more comfortable settling into his new—”
The other cat’s laugh interrupted, cutting Lore off. “The attack primed and triggered you to mate him, and that’s what he’s responding to. You are as well.”
“He’s accepted me and I him.”
“You’re both drugged by hormones and sex.” The warden exhaled a weary breath. “If you’re still imprinted on each other in a few days—”
“He won’t last days! You confessed it with your own mouth. It isn’t safe for him here.”
“It isn’t safe for him anywhere,” the stranger growled. “And keeping him alive will require more than one horny puma.”
The tree vibrated, a thud sounding very near the opening of the den. “No one else will touch him again.”
“Release me, or by all the gods, I’ll order you tranqed.” Shane must have made some sound to alert the stranger, because the intruding cat swapped his cold, clipped command for a cajoling purr. “He needs you, Lore. Don’t make him face us—this—without you. If the human truly is your victor—”
“He is.”
“You’re to comfort and reassure him while his mind adjusts to what his body already knows.”
“He’s steadying.”
“He’s cowering,” the warden said with a snort of disbelief. Then more quietly, “From you as much as everything else. Poor bastard.”
“You’re wrong.” Lore ducked between the screening vines, groping for Shane under the furs and cushioning leaves. Shane didn’t scramble away. Where was he to go? When Lore tugged him from their den and into his arms, Shane squinted at bright sunlight and burrowed into his cat, fingers gripping Lore’s short coat of fur to hold on despite the miserable throbbing of his immobilized wrists. Rather than look at the vague blur of blue jumpsuit that indicated the stranger was an Arena 4 official, he pretended he and Lore were alone, that the other cat’s scent wasn’t tripping his pulse. “He trusts me,” Lore said.
The warden studied them both with hard yellow eyes. “You’ve fed him.”
Shane licked his lips at the remembered taste, still craving both the bitter and the salt of his cat.
Lore shrugged. “The intimacy shared between mates calms him.”
The warden stared at them forever, sending tendrils of fear curling up Shane’s spine until the strange cat finally focused that cold, emotionless attention on Lore alone. “What’s the human’s name?”
Lore blinked.
Heat crept into the cheek Shane pressed to his cat’s pec.
“Has he even told you why he entered the arena, spoken of his life and the dreams you’re destroying?”
“He does trust me.” When Shane peeked, Lore’s ears had flattened atop his head. “That should count for something.”
“He’s as confused as you are.” The other cat sniffed in disdain. “Victor? You don’t know anything about him except how he looks twisting on the end of your dick.”
Lore scowled. “If he were a cat, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
“If he were a cat, we wouldn’t need to be so careful of him. The instincts overtaking him aren’t natural to his kind. Humans respond most readily to the injections during screening, but that only primes their bodies. Their hearts and minds fight us every time.” The warden heaved a tired, dispirited breath. “I’ll send med techs to confirm his wrists are mending and change the dressing on his hip.” He leaped to the next tree limb. “Don’t just hunt and fuck him. Don’t just feed him. If you want to keep him, talk to him. Show us he is truly your victor, and while you’re at it, convince him.”
The arms holding Shane tightened. “You don’t care if we’ve mated. You just want me to question him about his family.”
“Both the feral leopard that attacked him and the rogue mastiff ignored a wealth of easy prey to track him. Only him. And the human’s kin are a murderous lot.” The warden nodded. “Yes, I want you to question him. More than his life is at stake.”
“The other human?”
Shane s
huddered.
“When the human isn’t screaming that more beasts are hunting, more cats prowling to kill competitors, he is mating to Maero. The attack broke the other human, perhaps permanently.” Leaves rustled. “Is that what you want for your mate? Talk to him. Help us save his life.”
Once the warden had vanished into the green canopy, Shane swiveled his head to stare at his silent, stony cat.
“Hold on to me,” Lore said and ran the length of the tree limb. Reaching the end, which dipped with their combined weight, he jumped. Heart thrashing with both burgeoning rage at his helplessness and fear, Shane squeezed his eyes shut. With the limb as a springboard, they soared through the upper canopy. Like flying. Shane barely felt the jolt of Lore reaching another tree, only the taut clench of his cat’s body as Lore absorbed the shock of the landing before the puma ran and jumped again. They didn’t go far, only a few terrifying leaps.
“Shh,” the cat purred once they’d stopped, his arms around Shane comforting now instead of restraining him. “We live in the trees. We know how to move among them. I’d never drop you.”
Shane’s trembling slowly abated. Good. Fury felt much better.
If Lore saw the blow coming, he didn’t dodge or deflect it. His head rocked back as, wrists bound and useless, Shane winged his elbow up to crack the cat’s jaw.
And the cat indeed dropped him. Only to the crude platform in the trees he’d carried Shane to. Shane didn’t stumble when the soles of his feet kissed the smooth, damp boards, but the blip in his stomach as he fell infuriated him all over again. Since he wouldn’t reach Lore’s face, Shane elbowed his gut.
Glaring at him, Lore rubbed the line of his jaw. “You needed water to drink, a shower.” He tipped his head up at a bulging and incongruously yellow tarp hanging above them, a tied corner dripping collected rainwater to the platform beneath Shane’s toes. “Food.”
“This is your fault.” It wasn’t. Shane knew that, but…he hated this. Hated the chaos in his head, the hurts singing through his body. Hated how much he still wanted the cat inside him. “I was doing fine until you showed up.”
“I wasn’t the only predator tracking you. Better that I caught you first.” Grimacing, Lore lashed out with an unclawed hand to drag Shane’s stiff body back into his embrace. “What is your name, Precious?”
Shane wasn’t a victor yet. He couldn’t be. And as long as he kept his trap shut, he wouldn’t be. Shane glowered at Lore. “The other cat who attacked me and the rogue whatever that went after Fallon… They were targeting me?”
“Not until you tell me your name.”
“Fallon? He’s okay?”
The cat simply stared at him.
Scowling, he relented. “Shane.”
Lore arched an eyebrow, so Shane grudgingly continued. “West. Shane West. Why are—”
“Your home planet? Family?”
Shane elbowed him again. “You can’t just… No. I don’t care how good it feels when you fuck me. I’m not staying on Mariket. As long as all we do is fuck, I won’t—”
Lore reached over their heads, drawing Shane’s gaze. When the cat wrapped his fingers around a dangling, wet rope, Shane had the sense to shut his mouth and eyes before Lore pulled. Tepid water cascaded in splashes from the crude water collection system and drenched them both. Shane yanked his face down so water wouldn’t stream into his nostrils, and gritted his teeth as the mating bite on his shoulder was flushed clean in a painful rush.
“Your backpack is stored with my kit.” The cat released the rope so the stream slowed to a trickle, and slid his hand into a hollowed knot in the tree trunk. He withdrew an unused tube of antibiotic salve included in every competitor’s first-aid supplies. “But you need medicines.”
Braced against the hurt, Shane stood silent and stoic as the cat flicked open the cap and squeezed goop onto his finger. He dabbed the ointment on the bite, his purr vibrating the air between them as Shane flinched. He didn’t stop until a thin layer covered the wound. “The bite will scar.”
A slight breeze whispered over Shane’s slick skin. He shivered. “That doesn’t mean we’ve truly mated, that I’m your victor.”
“No.” Lore smiled. “But it’s a start.”
Chapter Five
“Being a fuck toy has its moments.”
~ Shane West
Don’t care what fucking day it is
Shane sprawled on the tree limb, legs straight forward, spine pressed into the trunk. Lore had found twisted branches that provided a comfortable perch, and spread pelts from their den to cushion the rough bark. Naked, with the heat of the sun bathing him in the highest reaches of Mariket’s forest canopy, Shane relaxed. His muscles melted into goo. Eyes closed, he listened to the symphony of whistles, caws, and twittering song from birds harmonizing with cries of strange animals both seen and unseen—none of which, Lore had assured him, would harm him.
Peaceful. Soothing.
He could almost pretend he didn’t hear the yowls of mating cats in the distance, muffled but still discernible even here.
Those were other cats. Not his cat. They wouldn’t come to this place. Wouldn’t touch him. Lore had marked trees with fresh scratches in a wide territory around their den as warning, and wardens had confirmed the rest of the cats had been alerted to stay away. Not only that, but wardens and the Hunt’s cats alike had agreed to shepherd competitors from the ground Lore had claimed. He and Shane would mate—or not—in privacy. As private as could be expected in an arena, anyway. Wardens and bookies collecting bets across the star systems still expected a show, to see him and Lore coming together.
Or falling apart.
The branch beneath Shane quivered, the scent of his cat filling his nostrils.
“Open.”
Eyes still closed, Shane dutifully parted his lips for the tart berry Lore popped inside. He chewed, savoring the sweet flavor, and opened his mouth for more.
“First lover,” Lore said, voice clipped as he fed Shane another berry.
Shane smiled as he chewed. The cat had been interrogating him for days. Shane was positive Lore didn’t grasp that randomly appearing out of thin air to demand answers about Shane’s past, his preferences, and his goals was a cross-examination rather than an expression of natural interest in a mate. Cats, including species that lived in groups, were socially awkward creatures. Tight-lipped. Bossy. Lore wasn’t an exception to that rule, but underneath the clumsy fumbling, Shane believed the cat was genuinely trying. Failing. But he scored points with wardens for making an effort.
Not with Shane, though.
He swallowed his treat and parted his lips expectantly, awaiting another.
The cat brushed his mouth with the moist fruit. “Stubborn.”
Heartbeat pounding, Shane lifted his lashes to meet his cat’s stare. “Cruel.”
Lore popped the berry into Shane’s mouth. “Shall I seduce your words from you, then?” he asked, but he already lowered his body to Shane, the kiss of sun-warmed fur on Shane’s skin enough to make him tremble.
Shane spread his thighs, creating a cradle for Lore’s hips. “You enjoy debauching me.”
“I do.” The cat replaced the food with his mouth, tongue slipping inside to drive Shane out of his head. He never tired of the rough scrape of Lore’s tongue twining with his, loved the tender but firm grip on his hip that held him still for the taunting pump of Lore’s groin. “And you’re more affectionate after you come.”
Groaning, Shane arched his back.
The cat couldn’t deny their mating lust any more than Shane could. The pheromones, hormones ricocheting inside them, the alluring brush of fur on skin, none of that felt wrong. Could never be wrong. What they created when they reached for each other was both magic and miracle. They didn’t fight it. Instead they writhed together, Lore’s mouth mauling Shane’s. The silky push of the cat’s dick against his and the gentle rub of the spines wreathing the tip enthralled Shane, wrapping him in a cocoon of sensation and giddy want.
And Lore was right.
When it was over and his cat’s purr rumbled in his ear, when the slick of their sweat and semen pasted their quivering bodies together, Shane opened his heart a little wider, gave a little more. “Mason,” he said against Lore’s shoulder. “My first boyfriend was Mason Denbo. We were fifteen. Mason was the second son of my father’s business partner.”
Lore skated lightly furred fingers up and down Shane’s calf. “Was?”
Shane shifted into Lore’s caress and was rewarded with a kiss. “Murdered within days of his father appointing him as the family’s heir.” He licked the taste of his cat from his lips.
“Look at me.”
He didn’t want to. Coasting on the lethargic satisfaction of their sex, he craved the cat’s tender care. This foreign sense of safety beguiled him. But Shane hadn’t defied Lore since the first chase. Victor or not, he wouldn’t start now. When he reluctantly glanced up, he sighed. Couldn’t Lore let him enjoy the intimacy just this once? No strategy, no Hunt, no mating. Only them.
Of course not.
The cat crouched over him, the sack of berries he’d foraged still slung over his shoulder despite their desperate writhing only moments ago. Lore had hooked his arm on a higher branch to disturb the limb on which they rested as little as possible.
One mishap, a single instance of surprise and shaking that had jostled Shane, had convinced Lore to avoid risking him again. Even Shane had smelled his cat’s fear at the fall. Lore had caught him quickly, the accident’s results only a pair of fresh bruises that had disappeared by morning, but Lore remembered. He had never jarred a limb Shane rested on or startled him again.
“I heard you tell the other human that your family wanted to kill you. That’s why you registered for the Hunt. To escape them.”
Shane turned his head away. He stared at leaves rustling in the breeze. “You’ll leave me with nothing.”
“I’ll never leave. Ever. And we are more than nothing.” Lore rubbed his cheek against Shane’s, bared of stubble since Lore had retrieved Shane’s personal kit from his backpack. “To defend you, Precious. Please. You’re healing, but still too vulnerable. I can’t anticipate threats I don’t understand.”